Murri community leader and Socialist Alliance Senate candidate Sam Watson has issued a call to action for the November 16 convergence on federal parliament in Canberra to say "Stop, Howard!" [see page 7.] 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's Marce Cameron spoke to Watson about why people should mobilise for this demonstration.
"We are not going to lie down and roll over for Howard's Liberal Party warmongering machine", Watson declared.
"This is the first sitting of the new parliament so it's important to send PM John Howard and his new government a very strong message that while they might have won the election [it was] a very immoral and dishonest campaign.
"For two elections in a row Howard has tapped into the innermost and darkest insecurities of the Australian people. In 2001 he used the plight of the Tampa refugees to take Australia back to the Menzies era, to present a scenario in which this country was supposedly going to be overrun by godless hordes of Asian refugees. In 2004 Howard has gone a step further and tapped into fears about bank accounts and home mortgages."
Watson pointed out that in 2001, former Labor leader Kim Beazley "out-polled Howard on primary votes, but because the rural electorates were weighted in favour of the National Party, Howard was able to get over the line. In 2004 it was only about 200,000 voters across the key marginal seats that tipped the balance in Howard's favour. So it's not all doom and gloom."
Watson argued that "Many in the Australian community still care about asylum seekers, Iraqi civilians who have been murdered by the US-led forces, and the struggles in East Timor and West Papua. They still care about Aboriginal health issues, about the rights of women in the workplace and in the wider community, and they still care about the huge HECS fees our students are facing. We need to recognise that the decision on October 9 was a very close decision. Howard should not draw too much comfort from this election.
"On our side of the political divide we need to regroup, rearm and refocus. Unlike the mainstream political parties we are not going to compromise our commitment and our absolute determination to secure real change in this country. We are going to hold onto our core beliefs in those key areas such as the illegal war in Iraq, the Israeli oppression and terrorisation of the Palestinian people and the illegal occupation of West Papua by the Indonesian armed forces, who are carrying out a bloody war of attrition."
Watson also pointed out that "Aboriginal people across the country are very angry that Aboriginal issues played no part in the federal election, even though we have the most appalling health statistics and we still face rampant police intimidation resulting in deaths in custody; we still have spiralling arrest rates, massive homelessness, unemployment and poverty, and entire communities living in Fourth-World conditions.
"On the eve of the federal election a federal government health report was released that said an Aboriginal child born in Australia today has the same life expectancy as a child born in rural Ethiopia. While it's totally unacceptable that any child anywhere in the world should be condemned to an early death through poverty and circumstance, people living in Australia cannot accept that our children, born into a society that has one of the highest living standards in the world and with a booming economy and record income from taxation, are still dying from starvation, lack of fresh water and the absence of regional health facilities."
Watson condemned the Howard government's "all-out war of attrition against Aboriginal leaders" since it was first elected in 1996, pointing out the extended campaign against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). "We demand that Howard restore all the funds and resources he has stripped and give them back to the Aboriginal political leadership."
Aboriginal community meetings are being held across the country to organise delegations to Canberra on November 16. "Because Howard now has absolute control of the Senate, he will try to follow through with his plans to annihilate and crush ATSIC as a political entity." Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will mobilise to "save ATSIC and to send a message to Howard that we will not allow him to go any further".
Watson's call to action urges people to "come together in a rainbow convergence, a living sea of hands on the laws of federal parliament, with each upraised hand saying 'Stop, Howard <107> you have no mandate!'"
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, October 27, 2004.
Visit the